is that my gerbil? you said he moved to a tiny farm. that's it, i'm runningway. no, no you can't come! [ male announcer ] e-trade. less for us. more for you. >> i'm s.c. cupp, straight ahead on "the cycle," millions despise the irs. >> 60 grand there, a business expense. any other business expenses you

want to try to deduct, irs? >> the irs spent $49 million on 220 employee conferences. [ laughter ] [ bleep ]. >> [ bleep ]. >> i'm ari meller have, the latest is not -- >> i'm krystal ball. will main street follow suit? they'll leave the future predicting to me, but today we'll let the resident money man dan gross take a crack at it. >> i'm toure, the tv writers picked the best shows of all time, but onglaring omission. hello? "the cycle"! ♪ ♪ ♪ more bad news for the irs. we mentioned it monday, but now we have the details of the new treasury inspector general's report on excessive spending at the irs. 49 million bucks spent on 225 employee conferences over three

years. that's more than 200 grand per conference at a time when our federal government has been looking for ways to cut spending. one conference in particular caught the inspector general's eye. the august 2010 conference in anaheim, california, that cost more than $4 million. good thing you paid your taxes on time, but the audit says the irs paid for the conference primarily through unused funding. uh-huh, originally intended for hiring enforcement employees. remember in august 2010 the unemployment rate was still 9.6%. this audit is simply the latest scandal for the irs. today also marks the fifth congressional hearing into irs practices targeting conservative group, but today finally something new. members from some of those targeted groups had their turn to speak. >> i'm a born free american woman, wife, mother and citizen, and i'm telling my government that you've forgotten your

place. it's not your right to assert an agenda. >> can you talk about the burden of the irs questions and how many there were? >> the burden of the questions on me personally was extraordinary. i think i could have bought stock in kefrng owe's. >> this isn't somebody dropped a piece of our tax return outside on the sidewalk. they deliberately provided our donor list to opponents of ours who had been seeking that information in a long time. if that's not inadvertent, the word no longer means anything. >> i thought we lived in a free republic, but i feel our country has turned a corner into tyranny, and i honestly have lost sleep over just being in fear of what our government might do next. >> democratic congressman peter welch serves on the oversight committee and is chief deputy whip of his party's caucus. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> there's been some criticism of a letter that you sent to the irs last year encouraging the irs to investigate whether some

of those 501 c 4s were in violation and in that letter you mentioned citizens united and you mentioned crossroads gps. why in your press release did you also mention liberal groups looking to benefit from the citizens united ruling? >> it probably should have because it applies equally. in my letter i was explicit to the irs which meant any group whatsoever. karl rove's group was the one raising millions of dollars and whether it was a carville group, james carville who was a political operative for karl rove. neither of those men is a social welfare organization, so it was a point i was make, but it would have been better to improve mr. carville's organization, as well. >> yeah, but if your concern is campaign finance reform and the worry that some of these groups on the left and the right might be taken advantage of this campaign financing law, then

doesn't it kind of poison the argument to make it a partisan one, and wouldn't the argument be better leaving the political groups from the left and the right out of it completely? >> well, realistically, the irs has an independent function to do even-handed enforcement and our letter said the organization and that's all that we sent to the irs and the bottom line is it is the organizations that in this post citizens united world, trying to find ways where they can get money out to advocate to their point of view which is legitimate and it's not right for them to be taking advantage of the tax code to do it. there was some question as to ripoff of the tax code. we have to do an investigation because when you do have a question that is legitimate about whether we're singling out one group for special treatment or adverse treatment that's not

acceptable, but there is a post citizens united here where we have to clean out the system and not have the irs be making judgments about whether this is advocacy speech that is protected or it is political speech that isn't. i mean, that's not their job. >> right. campaign finance reform would get to the bottom of this. >> congressman, i totally agree with that point and as i said, the investigations are important, but so far we have no evidence that there was higher level targeting that this was coming down from the obama administration or anything of that sort. so to me, the bigger question is about the 501c4 status itself or the bigger conversation about campaign finance reform. so ideal world, and also, by the way, i think it's to your credit that you were focused to these issues before the particular investigation. in your ideal world, would you like to see the c4 status modified? are there bigger campaign finance reforms that you would like to see?

what is some legislation that could positively come out of this? >> well, the most constructive thing that we could do would be require donors to disclose their identity. groups that were receiving money and raising it and using it for political purpose would tell us the name of who that donor was. the c-4 operation is as much about concealing the identity of contributors and that could be democratic-leaning or republican-leaning donor. transparency has always been one of the bedrocks of campaign finance. let the voters know who is sponsoring the ad, for instance, because then they can calculate that in how they want to give credit or not. in the ideal world, you'd have campaign spending limits. the citizens united would not -- would be repealed in my view and you would aren't have corporations that could give unlimited amount of money. the corporation is a lot of good things and it's not a person like you and me and that's essentially they've been endowed with the status by the supreme

court and that's just bizarre. >> i agree with that. >> congressman, was there also an interesting moment on the hill this morning between congressman mcdermott and congressman ryan. i want to play that for the people right now. >> i haven't heard a single word here about what questions you think we ought to be able to ask you about your tax-exempt request. anything else like the circus that's happening in the oversight committee or here is simply political theater. >> all right. thank you, time's expired. mr. ryan is recognized. >> um, i'm going to deviate from my original question in response to what i just heard. you know -- [ applause ] >> mr. chairman, the -- mr. chairman. >> welcome to washington. >> the committee will be in order. >> welcome to washington, indeed. >> boom! >> i wonder where you fall on that, people applauded, and he's, like, that doesn't mean

anything. is it a reasonable investigation or political theater or is it a little of both. >> you get politicians involved you will get theater and oftentimes way off broadway-style theater, but there is an important question. there is an important question here and the evidence is that there were buzz words that clearly were identifying tea party organizations, conservative organizations and it raises the apprehension legitimately, in my mind as to whether this has been politically motivate as opposed to bad management or bad terminology. we ought to do the investigation before we reach the conclusion, and i think we have to do that in order to restore some credibility. now one of my real objects to the irs and their conduct here is that it really has compromised their own credibility, when it comes to monitoring the c-4 status when it's a liberal or conservative group. >> so bottom line here, we've got an investigate core

challenge and who knew what, when and was it politically motivated in which case it's much more serious, but don't we have a camp cam finance situation that puts the errs as a governmental agency on the threshold of making decisions about free speech and political advocacy? that's not their job however they come down on it? >> that's such an important point. >> i have a comment and question for you, congressman. my comment is it feels to me like the republicans started with something very valid here whether or not at times they were politically motivated which is ensuring that these laws are enforced uniformly. they've spoken like that today and now it seems that they're beating up on the irs which is easy to do, but is very distant from where we started. my question for you, you could tell us if you agree or disagree, if we have time, and my question for you is can you weigh in on that inspector general report. this concern that has now been investigated about how much they

spend on conferences. overall, their conference spend has gone down. do you have any comments for us on that new report? >> the i.t. report says they were spending too much, in these conferences and in this day and age and not just with with fiscal situation and with videoconferencing. we can save the irs an awful lot of money if we did the teleconferencing. i'd like to see us follow up on the i.g. report and change our practices and there's another issue going on here. the heritage foundation sent a letter to the leadership and the republican leadership saying, look. don't bring bills to the floor, like the farm bill, okay? which is very important for us to debate. focus the investigations where the republicans are united on just bashing government and don't focus legislation where they actually have internal debates about the farm bill. we just saw, we're not doing anything to stop student loan rates from going from 3.4% to 6.8% and, you know, investigate

fine, but our job is to legislate and there are challenges that have been neglected here. so this is a little bit of a show troil to divert attention from what the fundamental job is. >> ari? >> welcome to washington. >> congressman peter welch, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> up next, wall street on a winning streak, but what does it mean for your wallet? the cycle rolls on, tuesday june 4th. ♪ ♪

21 straight tuesdays. that is the current winning streak for the dow which will likely come to an end this afternoon. still, it has been a banner stretch for the markets, couple that with news about the housing market and consumer confidence and you would think that happy days are here again. that's hard to believe for millions of americans who are still struggling to stay afloat. they're either unemployed or underemployed coping with staggering wages and a higher cost of living. when does the recovery arrive on main street or is this sichl low the new normal? let's get answers from dan gross. he's global business editor at "news week daily beast" who may be taking this cycle ing too literally. i like it, though. >> i saved you guys a hundred bouks the car service so i expect to get a little of that back. >> thank you. i appreciate that. >> well, i want to start with that question of is this the new normal and one of the stats that i think is really important to remember here is that a majority of the jobs that were lost

during the recession were middle income jobs and a majority of the jobs that had been gained in the recovery have been low-income jobs and we do not have the economy now that we had pre-recession. are we going to give back to that economy or are we going to see income and equality and the growing state grow and grow. >> it will take a long time because we have very slow job growth and when there are slow job growth you don't tend to get a lot of races. there are some parts of the economy that are doing quite well. we had auto sales and back to the 2008 levels. ford is increasing production. the agriculture economy and the energy economy. this is all sort of out in the middle of the country, and in certain areas, housing is doing well. we are just accustomed most of our adult lives where every single piece of the economy seems to be doing well as was the case in the '90s and as was the case in several years in the real estate boom and it's very

hard to see a path to getting every component of the economy going so long as we're engaged in austerity at the federal level and so long as companies are really not giving it up when it comes to wages. >> we need a new bubble. that's the clear answer. the problem. >> i remember i said maybe this is the new normal to jared and peter and they jumped down my throat almost literally and that was quite scary. i was, like, never say that again. to you, dan. consumer confidence since 2007, we saw people employed and underemployed. >> for most people the biggest asset they have is not their stocks or 401(k), it's their house and we've finally seen sustained growth in housing values and they're up 10% year over year. the housing market seems to be better in a lot of areas. >> secondly, their other biggest asset, if you will is their job. that's where they get their income to spend and their source

of benefits and also their source of dignity. and there are 6 million more people working now than there were a few years ago, 2 million more than a year ago and we're seeing what i call a decline of failure which is unemployment claims going down and bankruptcy filings and all of these things that are symptomatic and difficult times that are contagious if your neighbor loses their job and you start to feel bad and there isn't still a high degree of suffering, but the rate of failure has come down quite significantly and that makes people generally feel a little better. >> there was an interesting piece in the wall street journal on sunday on the economy's effect on entrepreneurialism. it says that there are three long-running trends that suggests the u.s. economy has turned soft on risk. dumps are adding jobs more slowly. investors are putting less money into new ventures and americans are starting fewer businesses and they're less inclined to change jobs or move for new

opportunities. has the obama economy stifled entrepreneurialism in your mind? >> no, i don't think so. look, we paid a lot of attention to tumblr and instagram and they get acquired for a very high rate. >> yeah. i think what's stifling, people starting their own businesses and willingness to move jobs is the top line and the overall economy isn't growing. if you are optimistic that people are going to eat out a lot you might open their restaurant and they're all eating at home and they're worried about their jobs and they don't have income to spend you won't open a restaurant and i think that's what's sort of happening here and people are starting businesses and there's this fear among established companies, small companies and companies that don't exist yet that if you spend the money and open the doors the customers won't show up. >> can we talk about the bond king for a second, bill gross? >> sure. no relation. >> no relation, but two important economic grosses, bill, holding a lot of funds and

making a lot of noise. he's got a new investment that i want to ask you about. he says the fed policy now is driving too much risk. he argues that never before have risky companies like b-rated companies that might issue junk level or near-junk level bonds and never before have they been able to issue debt about 5% and third and finally think the central banks think it would inevitably steal economic growth which is consumption investment and that's not happening. whether or not he's right, he has his hands on a lot of bonns. what do you make of that critique of the fed. >> keep in mind that this guy, pimco, has the biggest bond portfolio of anyone out there, and it's very difficult for them to get returns when interest rates are 1% and 2%. so there's an anger at bernanke and the fed for that. >> they something larger because they're blaming bernanke because the economy is want back from the aggregate.

so your mom is one of three pieces of the puzzle. it can loan interest rates and help in other ways and somehow that's supposed to step through in five different steps to the consumer. in ordinary times thattic mas a big difference, but at a time when the federal government and the state and local governments are cutting jobs by hundred of thousand which is is what we've seen in the last few years and companies are basically hoarding cash. companies like microsoft, ibm, they're able to borrow for close to nothing, but what they're doing with that cash is returning it to shareholders, people who already had money in the form of dividends and buybacks, they're not raising wages. and then these guys wonder why nobody has any money to spend at their stores. >> you pointed out some of the federal government cutbacks and you have austerity programs that are impacting the poor and the middle class in particular. dan gross, thank you so much. >> any time. >> the death of longtime senator frank lautenberg has left a key political vacancy in the garden

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this is about guaranteeing the people of new jersey both a choice and a voice in the process and the representation that they deserve in washington. that was new jersey governor chris christie this afternoon announcing a special election this fall to fill the u.s. senate seat now vacant following frank lautenberg's death on monday. the governor hasn't named an interim replacement yet, but he certainly is walking a political tightrope here. if he selects someone from his own party, he would gain gop ahead of a potential run in 2016. that move could alienate the more moderate voters he needs

for this year's reelection bid as governor. if he selects a democrat, not likely, it would truly outrage members of his own party and remember the bromance he had with president obama last fall, but it could also help him with democrat donors. many who have been offering up big contributions to his campaign. so what will christie do? let's take it to the table. i'm calling this christie's choice. it's sophie's choice for chris christie and basically what he did today really encapsulates the thing he's always dealing with which is how do i factor in my national appeal, my party and my state? sometimes those interests are colliding with each other and what he did today was calculated, okay, do i avoid a special election, help myself and help my party and be perceived as political and self-interested or do i be a fiscal conservative who is now going to spend millions on a special election.

>> right. >> and risk alienating the base. what he did was split the baby. he chose b. he said i'm going to have this special and he framed it as an urgency issue. it's important. we have important work to do and we have to get someone in that seat and new jersey deserves a voice and a choice. so, i mean, he chose a not good option of two not great options that put him in a politically perilous position, but he -- as he usually does framed it in a very compelling way. i mean, you saw the same kind of language around sandy like i'm doing what i have to for the state. he's just very gifted at that. >> i mean, yeah. he found a way to sell it. krystal ball always says -- oh, i know her that hip-hop can explain politics. >> i say that all of the time. i find that resonant. >> i'm glad that works for you. >> it's penetrated and jay-z and lil' wayne in a sigh, men lie, women lie, numbers don't lie. >> what's happening right now? >> what is happening?

>> this is what's happening. >> break it down for me. >> and the numbers and some applause -- the numbers don't lie when it comes to chris christie. if you look at the people who vote in the last election who matter a lot to him nationally, i'm not just talking about jersey, when you look at approval and favorability ratings, 39% of romney voters view christie favorably and 45% of obama voters view christie favorably. that is an extraordinarily national number for someone who wants to be a crossover candidate and yet at the same time everyone understands the basics and which is that he has to satisfy an extreme republican party. it's great that he's got this obama voter positively in waiting. i would say he's the only republican with any numbers like that and yet he's going have to do these mechanisms and so beyond what you said about the timing, the pick he actually makes will not probably be someone in the new jersey or chris christie image. it won't be someone who represents where new jersey voters are in a lot of these issues and a fairly blue state.

i would expect that there would be tremendous pressure him to pick someone in the national republican mold which i see is increasingly right of right and that the appointment process while it's good, i'm glad he's moving to an earlier election and the process has been a huge problem in the senate and since 200811 senators have been appointed. since the last election, four senators have been appointed and that's partly because i have such a sclerotic system and they often die in office and generally a sign that maybe you stayed too long. i think we could use a lot more young people and a lot more competitive senate races rather than the cartel of incumbency. >> cartel of incumbency -- lil' weezy and, of course, jay-z. >> of course. >> i want to take issue with that because i don't think some of the younger senators have been all that great the in senate. >> they're in the cartel. >> but, to your broader point,

christie is emfrom end owsley charismatic and i'm sure he'll have to face questions about the cost of it, et cetera. i think he's going to be fine. >> i also think that the imaginations of when the election will be and how it's going go down are a little bit for naught because i think basically cory booker has pretty much a lock on this seat, and i say that with the fact that these circumstances are really not ideal for him. a special election is a tough thing for a democrat. he is likely now low turnout. he's likely now to face a democratic primary against frank palomb, both within the state and nationally that i don't think that's going to be close and i don't think that a republican even one who is apointed and is given that elevation and stooch our is going to have a credible threat

to cory booker, so i think he still is likely to be the one that ends it up in the seat no matter what the decision. >> and he's big on twitter. >> and he's great on twitter. >> i want to actually broaden the lens a little bit because if a butterfly can flap its wings in china and affect the rain in brazil, then surely what happens in new jersey here will affect other things in the senate. most likely what happens in massachusetts. the race between markey and gomez becomes much more important especially for democrats cannot afford to lose another democratic seat. the race is nationalized and marco rubio sending out emails, fund-raising emails support gomez. >> today, yeah, right. >> and that's why they told you about it. >> that's why -- so everybody's paying attention nationwide. >> markey is ahead 17 points in the latest suffolk poll. he's doing very well, but you know, everybody wants to talk about what happened in 2010.

scott brown shocked the world, right? a blue state goes for a republican senator. massachusetts democrats are totally aware of that and totally overpreparing and getting their get out the vote and the machine is precise and we're not about to have that happen again, but massachusetts is the state where obama is extraordinarily popular and markey will go to the senate or he promised to go to the senate to help obama's agenda. massachusetts votes are will probably be behind him. we will see as we await the election in new jersey, who do you think christie will appoint as interim senator? george wilson said he'll try to walk the tightrope by selecting a republican. likous facebook and tell us who you think should get the interim gig. up next, the cold war might be over, but the cool war is beginning. what the president's key meeting with china's president means for the future of sino-american relations. yeah, we wanted to say so. i do a lot of research on angie's list

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need a little kick? ooh! could've had a v8. in the juice aisle. this week, president obama will meet with china's new president huh gjinping. it comes at a pivotal time for relations between the u.s. and china. while they've enjoyed a friendly relationship with china since the 1970s, western companies and agencies widely linked back to china are one of a host of issues upping the an toe what the next guest does "the cool war." advising members of the iraqi government council and drafting an interim constitution and he was recently given, yes, the most beautiful brainiac award by "new york" magazine. >> congratulations. >> how does that feel? >> uh, thanks.

don't thank us. we haven't decided on your beauty yet. >> fair enough. >> you're tracing this relationship whicha lot of people have been following, how have the economic dolings with china activitied to become more person than the military rivalry? >> it's hugely important to both sides because we buy about 25% of china's exports. so they absolutely need us and they buy 8% of our national debt so we absolutely need them. so there's a mutually assured economic destruction. at the same time, they are genuinely a rising power and we are the world's sole global super power and we don't want to share that stage. they want to lower the gap between us and that's why they're stealing, for example, through cyber attacks our military secrets. >> china, announced they'll pull back on the control on their economy and allow more foreign

investment, what impact do you think that will have on china and more importantly on us? >> there they have little choice. they've been growing so extraordinarily fast that it's not sustainable in the long run. so they need to innovate more and allow more entrepreneurship and that hasn't been so effective for them. assuming that that works and that they continue their level of economic growth. what that means for us is that our global competition will continue. it means that the communist party will stay in power and there will continue to be strong trade between us where they cut smithfield. that's a good thing because that brings ties closer together between us. it means that at the exact same time we have to worry about a world in which our allies in asia are increasingly drawn closer and closer and closer to china. >> talk a little bit about the

communist party in china. they faced a lot of criticism for corruption. they have a new anti-corruption campaign that i love. party numbers, check the mirror, fix your clothes, take a bath and see the doctor. what is all that about? >> you know, if you are a small group of people who run an entire country and you don't allow elections and your main goal is to remain in place you have to seem like you're doing a good job and you seem to look like you're not running an enterprise for your own good. because chinese communist party numbers sometimes have been rather spectacularly caught in corruption it's crucially important for the party that it not look bad. it's more important that they look like they're not stealing than that they actually not steal. so the way you have to think of it is this, the party has a collective interest. the party as a whole wants to manage corruption so that people won't give up on them, but every individual party member still has an interest in stealing as much as is possible so it's kind

of striking that that metaphor, which i love the look in the mirror metaphor. it's not actually be good with yourself. it's not saying look into your soul and it's saying look in the mirror and look at how you look and that's a problem and it's more or less okay and it's a subtle message, i think. >> i'm curious. we sit around and have these discussions about china. we have them all of the time where we ask about the rise of china, the economy and its military and what should we do about them. what kind of conversations are they having about us around similar tables? >> first of all, amazingly sophisticated. the cool war is not like the cold war where lots of americans knew nothing about the soviet union and they knew even less about us. the chinese have spent a lot of time in the united states so they understand the united states very well. they have the internet. it's filtered through a firewall, but they do have access to our internet production and they also have access to our movies and to some

of our television. so their knowledge of us is remarkably sophisticated and when china looks at us, they see a lot they want to copy. >> they see an economy that's grown historically and not so much now, but in history has grown. they see a koucountry that's bea global player especially because they don't want to be pushed around within asia and things that we're not doing right. our political system at least elites in china think this that it provides rights for people doesn't decisively solve problems and they fear that about democracy. that's one reason that the most senior people in china don't want to try out democracy because they see themselves as in a long-term sort of project of bringing their country into the first rank in the world and they think if you have to run for election every two years or every four years in the case of the president, you're not going have a long-term view. you know, deep down you have to wonder whether they might sometimes be right about that even though on human rights we don't want to go in their

direction, you sometimes do wonder could we have a better long term perspective and the answer is we probably could. >> before you go i want to ask you about the supreme court term that has a bunch of cases that will be released this month. you voted to uphold affirmative action in 2003. that's one of several cases along with voting rights and several marriage equality issues that are before the court. those will all come out this month. do you, based on your experience not asking for private details and based on your experience and analysis, do you think this court will strike down affirmative action or do you have a view on any of those other cases? >> the affirmative action case is likely to be extremely close. it's very likely to be a 5-4 decision. i really hope that they can find some way to leave some space for affirmative action, but i think it's possible and probably more likely than not that they will strike it down and that will leave us to try to find creative solutions to try to ensure diversity without using formal affirmative action. the gay marriage cases are much,

much more complicated because on the one hand, i don't think the court wants to turn back the clock and yet on the other hand they're worried about getting ahead of public opinion. so i think we may get a complicated split decision there and that's something to be watched extremely carefully going forward. >> thanks for spending time with us, noah feldman. >> thank you very much for having me. >> absolutely. up next, tv guide is up next with the best written shows worldwide and we have one of hollywood's most creative minds to tell us what he's been working on lately. who is it? one hint, one of us will be gone without a trace. >> oh! (announcer) at scottrade, our clients trade and invest exactly how they want. with scottrade's online banking, i get one view of my bank and brokerage accounts with one login... to easily move my money when i need to. plus, when i call my local scottrade office, i can talk to someone who knows how i trade. because i don't trade like everybody. i trade like me.

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>> let the debate begin! the writer's guild of america has relied the 100 tv shows of all-time. runner-up is still a cycle favorite is -- >> hey. >> oh, my god! >> it's the merv griffin set! >> how did you get this in here? >> you just bring it in sideways and -- hook it. >> so where are you going to sleep? >> backstage. >> this chair smells like garbage. >> well, a lot of the stars from the '70s they were not as hygienic as they appeared on tv. take mannix, for example. >> i'm going to get that. jerry, we'd love to have you

back any time. >> krystal, that was nbc's long-running sitcom about nothing "seinfeld." in the top spot -- >> nobody's killing anybody. >> here's a line in the sand when it comes to mothers. >> you lay a hand on him and you're going answer to me. if you can quote the rules you can [ bleep ] obey them, you hear me? don't just look at me. this is a business. >> amen. ari, that was "the sopranos," rounding out the top five were the a original twilight zone, and madmen is seventh and the wire was ninth. our work was noticed by the writer's guild and it's the creator and writer of "without a trace," and combrafrngys fans love him for that and he's a novelist and his debut action thriller novel is "out of range." welcome, hank steinberg. what is the difference in your

mind between writing for television and writing a novel. >> writing for television is very immediate. you know if you're episodes a year, something will shoot. you're doing it off the seat of your pants and you're not being professionistic. someone's going to direct it, someone's going to light it, it's going to go. when you're writing a novel, you're all alone in the dark little room hoping there's a reader out there somewhere. it's also kind of a straighter line between you and your readers/audience, because you know it's not going to be interpreted by all those people in the middle. >> right. >> and, you know, every word is going to be, you know, absorbed and when you write a screenplay, you kind of know, you might just say, you know, interior bar, it's a dive, period, that's it. you know the production designer is going to come in and they're going to interpret that. so it was a very gratifying experience. i always wanted to do it. ever since my "without a trace" days, i kind of found the right

story i thought would be a really cool fit for it. >> talk about that story for "out of range" for the novel. you had kind of a personal moment that was creative inspiration, right. >> i had so many years of working on "without a trace" and having a certain level of paranoia or norosi. my wife was driving home from disneyland with my son in the back seat of the car. she called me from the car and said, hank, describe to me how to get home. you have a special way. six different freeways. i started talking to her, telling her which freeway to take, merge now, it was late. she sounded frantic. my son started freaking out in the back of the car. whaling, crying. she said, i'm going to pull over and deal with him. on the side of the freeway? don't do that. she said, no, i'm going to pull off the exit. i knew which exit she pulled off of. i was talking her through. two minutes go by. i said, wonder what's going to happen if she doesn't call back in the five minutes she said? i'd be terrified. of course, my mind started going all the terrible things that

could happen to them at some random gas station or denny's on the side of the road. lo and behold, she called back two minutes later. in the meantime, i had the kernel of an idea. i thought, what would a husband do if the wife was on the side of the road with child or children and never called back? it just seemed like a really cool way in to a story. what would happen if the husband after 45 minutes of calling hospitals and getting no information, calling police and getting no information, how long would it take for you to jump in your car and drive to that spot where you knew your wife got off the road? >> horrifying. >> what happened if you get there and your children are there but your wife is gone? there's a broken window on the car? >> that's basically the start of the novel. >> it's the start of the novel. becomes, how did she go missing? what was the secret? what were the lies in the marriage? what was she hiding from him? it blows up into a bigger kind of story than with the without a trace" episode typically does. it goes on to a very big international stage. >> that sounds gripping. best of luck with that. congratulations on finishing the

novel. >> thank you very much. >> going to do one more. we look forward to that. >> thanks so much. >> hank steinberg. thank you very much. up next, the good news and not so good news for women around the world. you'll never guess who s.e. is singling out for hurting the cause. thank you. watch out for myself. with so much noise about health care... i tuned it all out. with unitedhealthcare, i get information that matters... my individual health profile. not random statistics. they even reward me for addressing my health risks. so i'm doing fine... but she's still going to give me a heart attack. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for more than 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. given way to sleeping. tossing and turning have where sleepless nights yield to restful sleep, and lunesta eszopiclone can help you get there, like it has for so many people before. do not take lunesta if you are allergic to anything in it. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake.

walking, eating, driving or engaging in other activities while asleep without remembering it the next day have been reported. lunesta should not be taken together with alcohol. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions such as tongue or throat swelling occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. then find out how to get lunesta for as low as $15 at lunesta.com there's a land of restful sleep, we can help you go there, on the wings of lunesta. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop.

can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap.

time traveling is just too dangerous. better that i devote myself to studying other great mystery of the universe. women. >> we're a planet teeming with women, it seems the fairer sex is largely misunderstood. we are something of a mystery, i

grant you. i can't explain why, for example, we sometimes hold our husbands accountable for the bad decisions they make in our dreams. our why we feel slightly less passionate about chicken wings than men do. or why one day we suddenly stopped rooting for tiger woods to win golf tournaments. but with all we do know about women, some things should be wrote by now. no, we cannot self-abort in cases of rape, though that would be a neat biological trick. we do not want you to e-mail or tweet semi na can ked of yours. and you do not have the slightest clue about what happens as soon as a baby's lips touch that girl's busom. nor lou dobbs' panel on fox news know what is anti-science or what constitutes our social order. even some women seem clueless about women. last year democratic strategist hilary rosen asserted stay at home mom of five ann romney had never worked a day in her life. but there's some food news in at

least one area. if you're a woman and a political candidate, things have never looked better. the double standard women have long faced in running for office seems to have all but disappeared. "the atlantic's" writes of surprising findings, and a book by debra jordan brks, "he runs, she runs." brooks asks participates to evaluate two fictitious political candidates. one man and one woman in various scenarios. the scenarios were identical in both cases. the candidate made inaccurate statements in a public appearance. erupted as a colleague. made threats. proved inexperienced. in the end both candidates were rated almost identically with t participating punishing the man and woman equally for their faults. when it came to their lack of experience, they considered that to be a positive for the female candidate. even giving her an edge. and what about the media? hilliry rosen and lou dobbs asi.

a 2010 study by two political scientists found women candidates got as much media coverage as men, were no more likely to be described in terms of their clothing, appearance, or family life. this is good news for hillary clinton, shelley a republican running for senate in west virginia, and christine queen who relately may have gotten more good news when anthony weiner decided he's no longer a troglodyte and would like your vote for new york city mayor. it is very bad news for fans of that much ballyhooed old social order. not to mention for political activists on the left and the right to rely on the double standard meme. elections that help you win elections is hard to break. it's rough out there for women, traders, breadwinners and stay at home moms about whom we have much to learn. but at least the science seems settled on women in politics. that is, until lou dobbs decides to host another panel. okay. that does it for "the cycle."